PRISON officers at HMP Send could find themselves behind bars if they agree to strike over poor pay and conditions.

Their union, the Prison Officers’ Association (POA), announced plans to ballot members on industrial action last week.

They say morale has slumped to an all-time low at Send women’s prison as staff fear job cuts coupled with rises in the inmate population are looming.

Anger is mounting among officers over the construction of a new wing, which will see a 30% increase in the jail’s population. It is already at capacity with a population of just under 200 inmates.

Fears are compounded by a recent report that recommends the number of officer grades be slashed from 64 to 57. The concern is there will be fewer staff to cope with more prisoners.

Roger Moore, of the 85-strong Send branch of the POA, said: “The government has identified £60million in savings over three years.

“However, they are wasting money on needless bureaucracy and court cases when money should have been diverted to the frontline. They are wasting tax payers’ money.”

All of the officers the News and Mail spoke to last Thursday said stress levels were through the roof at Send, with shifts regularly spanning more than 18 hours. This, they said, has led to a mass exodus from the profession.

Officer Lee Wenden said: “People who were looking for a long-term career with the prison service are leaving to do silly jobs with no security and where the pay is not guaranteed.”

The union had its fangs pulled in 1994 by the then Home Secretary Michael Howard, who made strike action punishable with a prison term.

But now the union has given the government 12 months’ notice to withdraw from the agreement that made industrial action illegal.

The POA’s general secretary Brian Caton joined colleagues at Send to call for better pay and conditions for officers.

“My members don’t want to walk out on strike, they really don’t,” he said from outside the gates at Send last Thursday.

“They have got a difficult enough job to do and the management is taking advantage of them. We felt it necessary to start making a stand.”

Anger is mounting among prison officers who say they have suffered a decade of sub-inflation pay rises.

Mr Caton said prison staff, who coped with a national prison population of 80,000, had been undervalued by successive governments.

He said: “Nobody sees what we have to put up with. Sixty per cent of the people in prison shouldn’t be there at all. They should be in a psychiatric hospital.

“If we get this wrong you are going to get raped, you are going to get robbed or you are going to get murdered. We have to lock them up and make sure they behave and make sure they don’t come out and commit these crimes.”

A spokesman for the prison service said that at least some of the POA’s concerns were unfounded.

She said: “A recent profile for HMP Send by the Prison Service Efficiency and Consultancy Group made recommendations on a number of issues including staff levels.

“These are still subject to discussion and no final decisions have been made. HMP Send has bid for 48 extra staff, including 21 prison officers to work within the new 64-place expansion due to open at the end of this year.”